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Friday, 28 October 2016

Education and training is an essential component
for success if aspiring to change employee behaviour or increase the uptake of
a company policy.

As a travel manager, you would like more employees
to comply with your travel policy and, as a security manager, you would like
more travellers to be safer when on the road, as well as knowing what to do if
something goes wrong.

Education and training can be conducted formally or
informally – in an ideal world the former approach is preferable for legal and
compliance reasons. However, an effective solution should be dictated by an
organisation’s culture and delivered in a way that fully engages
employees.

Traditionally, a formal approach is achieved
through tracked eLearning modules or registered classroom sessions. Some
organisations use proof of training as a travel policy control and will not
allow their TMCs to process an employee’s booking unless a training certificate
is presented or verified.

Another technique, in a bid to promote general
awareness and behavioural change, is to employ informal methods such as short
engaging videos and gamification. The approach taken, whether formal or
informal, will reflect an organisation’s culture, but offering some form of
training to employees is always preferable to providing nothing at all.

Conducting the same old training each year can be
boring – keeping content fresh and interesting will engage and encourage your
employees to be safer and more compliant with your policies.

The beTravelwise team aims to make travel safety
training an interesting and interactive experience for all employees, so
we've put together the five-minute ‘Travel
Wise’ game, inviting, corporate travellers to test – and
refresh – their travel safety knowledge by answering multiple choice questions
on 10 pertinent topics that cover every aspect of their journey: pre-travel
booking, things to know before you travel, packing, arrivals, vehicles, at the
hotel, health, free time, medical support and home again.

The current buzz word in business travel is
‘personalisation’ and by making education relevant and accessible to your
employees you will deliver a better and safer travel experience for all
stakeholders.

Andy Prior, Director and Co-Founder of
beTravelwise, is passionate about all aspects of travel risk management. He has
extensive experience in assisting multinational clients across several
industries globally, having worked for International SOS as the firm’s EMEA
Regional Security Manager. He is passionate about travel and has visited 80
countries worldwide. Before specialising in travel risk management, he spent
six years as a British Army Officer. He has a BA (Hons) from Newcastle
University and an MA from CASS Business School. He is a Certified Protection
Professional (CPP). LinkedIn Profile.